Flood Compels Delta Govt to Shut Varsity
Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba
As more residents in flood-ravaged communities continue to count their losses due to the disruption of social and economic lives of the people, the Delta State University of Science and Technology has asked its students to vacate the institution until the flood abates.
This followed the state government’s decision to close the school for two weeks when the flood is expected to have receded sufficiently for the resumption of normal academic activities in the young institution.
Delta State Commissioner for Higher Education, Dr. Kingsley Ashibuogwu, advised the immediate temporary closure of the university during an on-the-spot assessment visit to the institution on Friday.
He said that the decision was inevitable for the safety of the students and staff to remain on campus, as most of the school has been flooded while the flood level was still growing.
The education commissioner, however, expressed hope that the flood would have receded within the two weeks duration and it would be safe for students to resume academic activities.
Parts of the institution seriously affected by the flood include the faculties of Administration and Management, Computer Science, Environmental Sciences, Agriculture, Mass Communications as well as the University Health Centre, the library, generator plant house, Staff Club and the administrative building.
This is coming on the heels of a directive from the Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa that political appointees should return to the respective ‘home bases’ to help out with ongoing efforts at providing relief for citizens in the state that have been displaced from their houses, farmlands and business areas by this year’s seasonal flooding in many parts of Nigeria.
Secretary to the Delta State Government (SSG), Patrick Ukah, confirmed the governor’s directive in Asaba, saying the officials were needed more at the respective communities at this challenging time when the state government was wondering assiduously to provide succour to Deltans who have been forced out of the homes and communities be ravaging floods.
Ukah, who heads the state committee on the flood disaster relief management, has made visits to flooded communities and taken relief materials to displaced persons in the about a dozen relief camps created across the state to provide temporary shelter for the victims of the flooding.
THISDAY learnt that the Ukah-led disaster management committee was working in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Political Adviser to the Governor to ensure effective mobilization of the political appointees on their emergency assignment in the different grassroots communities.
The Director-General, Delta Bureau of Orientation, Eugene Uzum, said a total of 4,755 persons comprising including men, women, children, lactating and expectant mothers as well as a persons with disabilities, have been registered at the relief camps across the state.
Uzum commended the health policy of the Okowa administration, saying the health programmes of the government have made it “relatively easy to set up temporary but very functional medical and health clinics in all the relief camps” for citizens displaced by the flood.
Meanwhile, communication between Warri/Ughelli/Patani to Bayelsa State/Rivers State has been rendered practically impossible following the serious flooding of a portion of the East-West Road since last Wednesday.
Consequently, travellers on the East-West Road between Ughelli (Delta) and Port-Harcourt (Rivers) have been advised to take alternative routes until the flood recedes sufficiently.
Uzum said, on Friday in Asaba, that the flooding of the East-West Road had trapped trucks conveying relief materials to communities affected by the flood in the Patani/Bomadi axis of the state.
“Trucks conveying relief materials to that axis have been trapped. We now make use of speed boats to access the IDP camp to deliver materials to the victims,” he said.
